To the editor:

For those shocked by your recent property tax bills, the city manager and three city commissioners are about to increase them again. On Dec. 12, the city manager is going to ask the City Commission to increase impact fees, taxes, on new homes to help pay for new communitywide parks. These increased fees increase everyone’s property taxes because the cost of new homes is part of the basis for setting assessed valuations of existing homes. The City Commission is not stopping there.

The Dec. 6 Journal-World article “City takes pass on gas proposal” outlines a litany of tax increases on housing to help pay for infrastructure maintenance and to subsidize affordable housing.

Additionally the City Commission’s Housing Needs Task Force is considering various cost exactions, tax increases, on new homes to help subsidize affordable homes.

If these actions and attitudes are not stopped, your property taxes will continue to spiral upward.

The above would not even come up if the commission had a long-range financial action plan to broaden our tax base beyond residential properties.

Commissioner Rundle recently lamented the fact the state has placed some tax lids on local governments. Rundle says the state legislators need to place more trust in local governments. Rundle says, “The state seems to be overly concerned with looking over the shoulders of local governments on how they spend money or raise revenue. They should leave that to local voters who elect or de-elect local leaders.”

De-elect is good!

David Reynolds,

Lawrence